The budget cuts known as "the sequester" will hit communities of color particularly hard when they take effect Friday, according to a panel discussion Thursday at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington.

The sequester, as the cuts are known inside the Beltway, "hampers federal efforts to protect health, prevent disease and disability, and promote opportunity for communities already burdened by risks for poor health," said Brian D. Smedley of the JCPES.

While the poor are shielded from many cuts (Social Security and Medicaid are exempt), the sequester will affect some programs that disproportionately serve people of color. Screenings and tests offered through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will be cut, according to the JCPES, as will federal funding for community health centers and early childhood care and education programs, as well as WIC, the program that provides supplemental nutrition for women, infants, and children.

In practical terms, that means CDC would provide 424,000 fewer HIV tests and 25,000 fewer breast and cervical cancer screenings for low-income, high-risk women, the JCPES said, citing a recent House Appropriations Committee report. Federal funding for community health centers would be cut by $120 million, which could mean that 900,000 fewer patients would be served. About 70,000 children would lose access to Head Start, and 600,000 low-income pregnant and breastfeeding women and their children could be cut from the WIC rolls.

Because racial and ethnic minorities, who represent 37 percent of the overall U.S. population, disproportionately use those services, panelists worry that those communities will be hit hard by the cuts.

Read more at National Journal.

Five policy experts delved into details on how impending sequestration cuts will further disadvantage those who depend on federal assistance programs, particularly people of color, during a Thursday panel discussion at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

At the event, entitled The Impact of Sequestration on the Health and Well-Being of Communities of Color and held on the eve of the sequestration’s March 1 effective date, panel members discussed the array of health, human development, and environmental programs that are important to communities of color and which face particularly devastating cuts.  Among them are the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), Head Start, HIV prevention and testing, and the federal program that provides low-income, uninsured, and underinsured women access to breast and cervical cancer screening and diagnostic testing.  

Brian Smedley, Ph.D., Vice President of the Joint Center and Director of its Health Policy Institute, reported that the sequestration will result in 600,000 women, infants, and children losing WIC services, 70,000 children losing access to Head Start programs, 900,000 fewer patients served by community health centers and 25,000 fewer cancer screenings and 424,000 fewer HIV tests being covered by CDC funds. The proportion of people of color in each program ranges from 46 to 77 percent, he said.
 

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A panel of experts will discuss the potential impact of the sequestration program cuts on communities of color at a Thursday morning event hosted by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

The event will take place on Thursday, February 28, 2013 from 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. at the Joint Center, located at 805 Fifteenth Street, NW, in Washington, DC. The package of automatic across-the-board spending cuts will go into effect on Friday, March 1, unless President Obama and Members of Congress are able to hammer out an agreement to avoid the harmful impact they are expected to have on the economy, jobs, and the most vulnerable members of society.

“While most Americans will feel the impact of the sequestration, these cuts will have a particularly devastating effect on communities of color, where many people are still struggling to join the economic recovery,” said Ralph B. Everett, the Joint Center’s President and CEO.  “To pull the rug out from under them would be destructive and would not serve the nation well.”  

The participants for Thursday’s panel are:

• Ellen Nissenbaum, Senior Vice President for Government Affairs, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities;
• Liany Elba Arroyo, Associate Director, Education and Children's Policy Project, National Council of La Raza;
• Amber D. Ebarb, Program Manager, Policy Research Center, National Congress of American Indians;
• Priscilla Huang, J.D., Policy Director, Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum;
• Brian Smedley, Ph.D., Vice President and Director, Health Policy Institute, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies;
• Ralph B. Everett, Esq., President and CEO, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies (Moderator)

To read the entire press release, click the icon below. For event information and registration, visit our Events page.

Joint Center policy scholar Dr. Wilhelmina Leigh joins a distinguished group of experts to discuss "Health, Housing, and Education: Core Needs of the Population" at Howard University's Fourth Annual African American Economic Summit on February 1, 2013.

Joint Center President and CEO Ralph B. Everett joins Dr. Wayne A. I. Frederick and Elsie Scott of Howard University to welcome participants to Howard University's Fourth Annual African American Economic Summit on February 1, 2013.

Scholars gathered for the African American Economic Summit at Howard University on Friday sketched an alarming picture of the financial ills afflicting the black community even as the nation recovers from the recession.

The white-black wealth disparity is more than 20 to 1. Black homeownership has declined. Black joblessness is up. Black income is down.

As the conferees gathered, the government released new figures showing the black unemployment rate at 13.8 percent, nearly double the 7.0 percent for whites. The overall jobless rate is 7.9 percent.

As bleak as the economic picture is for black Americans, the immediate prospects for improving it are worse, many participants said. They agreed that chances are remote for the kind of aggressive, targeted action needed to combat those problems and close the economic disparities that have long separated blacks and whites.

“We are basically talking about an economic system that is shot through with discrimination,” said Bernard E. Anderson, a former assistant secretary of labor.

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During the depths of the crisis, Obama often said he wanted to build a better, more durable economy in the recovery. Conference participants said they are challenging him to live up to his word.

“We would all like to see him pursue that course,” said Ralph B. Everette, president and chief executive of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, which co-sponsored the event.

Read more at The Washington Post.

A national summit of scholars from universities and policy think tanks will meet at Howard University on February 1, 2013, for the Fourth Annual African American Economic Summit to discuss and analyze policy options and initiatives they think should be considered during President Obama’s second term. A central theme of the Summit will be the remarkably persistent racial disparities in U.S. society and how policymakers should seek to address them.

Scholars from leading universities (Duke, Howard,  Georgetown, the New School, the University of Pennsylvania, and John Jay College), and think tanks (the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies and Brookings Institution) will take a hard look at issues such as wealth and income disparities, unemployment and labor, housing, health, education and treatment of returning veterans.  Congressman Robert (“Bobby”) Scott (D-VA) and  Bernard E. Anderson of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School will examine the current economic crisis, especially with regard to its impact on African Americans, and offer policy prescriptions for the President’s second term.

Distinguished scholar and policy expert James (“Jim”) Carr, who has served in senior positions with the Opportunity Agenda, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, and Fannie Mae, will speak on the challenges that continue to afflict the housing market.

The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies will be represented by President and CEO Ralph B. Everett and Dr. Wilhelmina Leigh, an expert on wealth accumulation and housing policy.

Download and read the entire press release by clicking the icon below.

A national summit of scholars from universities and policy think tanks will meet at Howard University on February 1, 2013, for the Fourth Annual African American Economic Summit to discuss and analyze policy options and initiatives they think should be considered during President Obama’s second term. A central theme of the Summit will be the remarkably persistent racial disparities in U.S. society and how policymakers should seek to address them.

Scholars from leading universities (Duke, Howard,  Georgetown, the New School, the University of Pennsylvania, and John Jay College), and think tanks (the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies and Brookings Institution) will take a hard look at issues such as wealth and income disparities, unemployment and labor, housing, health, education and treatment of returning veterans.  Congressman Robert (“Bobby”) Scott (D-VA) and  Bernard E. Anderson of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School will examine the current economic crisis, especially with regard to its impact on African Americans, and offer policy prescriptions for the President’s second term.

Distinguished scholar and policy expert James (“Jim”) Carr, who has served in senior positions with the Opportunity Agenda, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, and Fannie Mae, will speak on the challenges that continue to afflict the housing market.

The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies will be represented by President and CEO Ralph B. Everett and Dr. Wilhelmina Leigh, an expert on wealth accumulation and housing policy.
 

Read the entire press release by clicking the icon below.

Research shows that African Americans are newer to the Internet than many other population segments, but also more active in using mobile technology to access the Internet. This means that African Americans rely on search engines to help them find information they need online -- and they know that the Internet is often the only place to find key information on jobs, health care, and other topics. Policymakers must, therefore, cultivate an environment where search results are trusted and reliable -- while ensuring that the companies that provide search services can continue to innovate in a rapidly evolving online ecosystem.

As the Federal Trade Commission examines practices of companies providing search services, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies is ready to work with all stakeholders to ensure that search engines serves the needs of consumers -- in an environment that supports innovation.
 

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For more than a year, Americans have heard a steady drumbeat about the dangers of the proverbial fiscal cliff from politicians, pundits and others.

When the clock strikes 12 on December 31, we've been told, an economic and financial time bomb will be triggered that will drag the country back into recession, cause stock markets to tumble, unleash another layer of unemployment and saddle middle-class Americans with thousands of dollars of additional taxes each year.

While dramatic, this scenario is unlikely to play out as forecast, said one local economist.

"On January 1, we will have started down a path where a range of people in a wide swath of life will suffer. We're expecting a hatchet on January 1 and everyone will be bleeding but it won't work out that way," said Wilhelmina Leigh, Ph.D., a senior research associate on economic security issues at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Northwest. "I think there are some clear, negative likely implications if we go off the fiscal cliff. Lights wouldn't go off but people may have to burn lights six hours a day and eat two meals instead of three. All the cuts will be spread out over the next decade so you won't see its effects instantly. This might have been done for people to buy time or it might have been the least painful way – if you have to suffer, it's better to spread it out."

Read more at The Washington Informer.